


When It Rains

by LadyofHeart



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Post-Time Skip, blue lions bonding hours yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 13:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20154139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofHeart/pseuds/LadyofHeart
Summary: Set somewhere after Dimitri calms down in the Blue Lions route; just some fluff and bonding between the Blue Lions since they all need to be happy right now.





	When It Rains

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the BL route, obviously. Nothing specific, though.

The rain hadn’t let up as they trekked further into Faerghus, and Byleth was quick to find that the rains here were colder than the rains at the monastery. It might as well have been snow at this point. Well, no, she was grateful that it wasn’t. Snow would be even harder for them to move through, and they had to make haste in their campaign. They always had to make haste these days as they set out to stop Edelgard’s ambitious empire.

Byleth watched the students ahead of her, silent as they struggled through the cold and mud. There was no luxury in war and enough months had passed for her to accept this. Yet it was still hard to reconcile the young faces she had grown to love in the safety of the monastery with those of weariness and anger in front of her. They had grown without her and she had been constantly making leaps and bounds to catch up. At least Dimitri had come back to the soft young man she once knew.

Or rather, he became the man he was meant to be. Not hiding his troubles, and not lost in them either. His shame was evident in the way he held himself around the others. Where once he had barely acknowledged them and sheltered himself at the cathedral to avoid them, now he kept his shoulders hunched and his gaze sweeping between them all, either in worry or curiosity. He had never paused to take in how his friends had changed themselves when they reunited, after all.

Though Byleth thought he should keep a little shame in his heart for pushing his friends away and neglecting his duty as their future king, she didn’t feel it right that there was now a stiffness and uncertainty between them all. Barring Felix, she was certain it didn’t come from a place of real anger. Just… unsureness. Even Mercedes didn’t know how to break the ice, and Sylvain’s comments earlier in the march had died out as it became harder to keep their energy up.

“We should stop,” Byleth suggested. Before she could help it, she was mentally preparing for Dimitri to snap at her for slowing down his quest for revenge. 

Instead, he just turned to Gilbert, who nodded in agreement. Right. They were moving past that now.

“This terrain is more dangerous with the mud,” Gilbert said. “It would be best to wait it out.”

The nearby trees would give them enough cover, so they headed there and began to settle down some of their supplies. All of this was tiring, but Byleth knew none of them would catch much sleep if they tried. There was too much on their minds.

Dimitri settled himself down on a stump toward more of their supplies. Byleth was surprised. She would’ve thought that he would stay off in the shadows with Dedue. She could tell by Ingrid’s glance that she wasn’t the only one a little caught off guard, but pleasantly so.

The chilly rain was relentless, but at least the trees were good cover. She could probably set up a tarp of some sort to keep them dry…

“Eeep!” Annette’s panicked noise caught her off guard.

“What’s wrong, Annie?” Mercedes said, instantly concerned.

“A giant drop of rain just went down my back and it’s /freezing!/” she complained. Byleth relaxed, relieved it was something so minor. She noticed the others did, too. Always so on edge, all of them. It hurt in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

“Your Highness,” came Annette’s voice again, and this time everyone was focused on her for a different reason. “Can I borrow you for a moment?”

The look of confusion and apprehension on Dimitri’s face made him look years younger. “Yes, what is it?”

He made a move to stand, but Annette was quick to shake her head and he sat back down. “Just stay right there,” she said as she sat next to him on the ground. She then pulled his large cape over her, and it perfectly tented to block her from the rain. “Yes, perfect!” She was grinning from ear to ear and looking up at Dimitri with a young and earnest expression.

He blinked, and then gave a small, delicate smile. “Glad I could be of use.”

Byleth knew it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to coo over this, but she certainly wanted to.

The bushes rustled nearby as Ashe and Gilbert returned from scouting the area. “It’s all clear nearby,” Gilbert announced, pausing to see Annette huddled under Dimitri’s cloak.  
Ashe chuckled, only to be interrupted by a shiver that raced through his body. “That looks cozy,” he said.

“Very,” Annette said.

Byleth was surprised when Dimitri lifted the other side of his cape. “Since you look cold,” he offered.

Ashe shook his head vehemently. “Oh no, I’m fine, I couldn’t--” He paused to sneeze, and Byleth noted his naturally pale complexion had become rather pink. 

She gave him a teasing nudge. “Can’t have my best archer getting a cold on us now, can I?”

He sighed, but it didn’t take any more pushing to get him to sit under the cloak on the side opposite to Annette.

It wasn’t a sight she ever thought she would see. Dimitri, gruff and war-worn, housing their two most baby faced members under his cloak as if he were a mother duck.  
Sylvain chuckled at them. He hadn’t even been pretending to be busy like Ingrid was with her pegasus or Dedue with his armor. “Got any more room under there?” he asked.

“Not on this side,” Annette said with a quick glare.

“Aw come on, it’d be nice and cozy next to you--”

She quickly wrapped the excess cloak around her body. “Nope, no room, sorry! Ashe?”

He was already looking sleepy as he leaned against Dimitri’s hip. “Um, there’s room over here.”

Sylvain shook his head, but he was smiling. Real and genuine. “Not the same.”

“Maybe I should get a longer cape,” Dimitri mused softly, tentatively.

“Any longer and my pegasus will be tripping on it from the skies,” Ingrid joked.

Felix crossed his arms. “Or everyone could just invest in raincoats.”

Mercedes smiled at him. “But where’s the fun in that?”

Lightning flashed overhead. “On second thought,” Sylvain said, approaching Ashe. “I’ll take you up on that.”

“I’m not protecting you from lightning, you know,” Dimitri said as he got settled under the edge of the cloak. 

Byleth was too busy gathering some blankets to hear what Sylvain’s response was, but her heart felt lighter than it had in months. It was hard to swallow that they would never return to the bright days of the monastery, and for a while she had kept her most dreadful and pessimistic ideas to heart, but now there was a glimmer of hope. A way to work past the grief, together.

“Here,” she said, handing a blanket to Dedue. It was nice to see him smiling, too. It was as rare as Dimitri’s. “I won’t have anyone catching colds on this march.”

“Thank you,” he said, still looking amused at Dimitri’s predicament. Sylvain was far too tall to be sitting under that cloak like a lost kitten, but he looked pleased, so who was going to stop him?

The levity in the air had even gotten to Felix, who didn’t turn Byleth away when she also offered him a blanket to keep warm, and he even joined them as they sat around each other to wait out the rains.

“It’s too bad it’s raining,” Ingrid said, curled up by Byleth’s side. “Some downtime would be perfect for a book right about now.”

“I agree,” Ashe said, perking up a bit.

“Your time would be better spent training,” Felix said with little malice.

Mercedes tightened the blanket around her body. “Oh, I know a few stories off the top of my head if you’d like to hear.”

“What kinds?” Ashe asked.

“Well, I’ve always been particularly fond of ones with ghosts--”

“G-ghosts?” He shuddered. There was a small ripple of laughter through the group, and Byleth caught Dimitri’s eye.

He looked so alive and happy and grateful, and she couldn’t look away. His smile was filled with gentleness and peace, two things she was afraid had been lost forever. Maybe he had to break to be whole again, or he had been broken from the first time they met, and it was only now that he was put together. Either way, she was glad that he had pulled himself out of it so he could finally step forth as future king.

The future didn’t scare her as much with this Dimitri by her side. Whatever came, they could handle it. They wouldn’t break again.

“Professor.” Dimitri’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Do you know any stories to tell?”

“Preferably not about ghosts,” Ashe said.

“Or knights,” Felix put in.

Jeralt had never been one for storytelling as far as she remembered, but sometimes she would overhear the other mercenaries they met on occasion talking about old legends or comedic adventures.

She pulled her knees close to her chest. “I can think of a few…”

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written an FE fic where my fav character/husband is actually in it (Ashe) so this was a very fun experience. I hope I did all the lions justice? This is probs ooc for them, but I tried my best. I just like them all so much ^.^


End file.
